Strategic behaviour of Russian companies with regard to intangibles
ISSN: 0025-1747
Article publication date: 9 July 2018
Issue publication date: 23 October 2018
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to explore strategy-specific competencies with regard to intangibles and provides empirical evidence of intangible-based strategy groups for Russian companies. Additionally, the study examines the link between intangible-based strategy and company performance.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper uses strategic group theory and the resource-based view framework to identify similar strategic behaviour of companies by employment of intangibles. In line with the intellectual capital concept, the study provides a cluster analysis that considers four types of intangibles: human, relational, innovation and process capital. These are measured through publicly available data using principal component analysis. The empirical part of the study uses a database of 1,096 Russian public companies, which covers the period 2004–2014.
Findings
As a result, the study reveals three profiles of strategic behaviour with regard to intangibles. The majority of Russian public companies (63.5 per cent) are Generics and pursue a non-intensive intangible strategy. Only 13.3 per cent of companies constitute the intangible-intensive profile by having endowment of all intellectual resources higher than the sample average. The remaining companies (23.2 per cent) also pursue an intangible-intensive strategy with a focus on innovation capital. Intangible-intensive strategic groups outperform Generics.
Originality/value
The study proposes a novel intangible-based strategy continuum, which straddles two polar strategies: generic and smart. The study introduces insights to better understand the differences in performance across intangible-intensive strategies and presents a new empirical inquiry into strategic behaviour with regard to intangibles in Russia.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
This paper is an output of a research project implemented as part of the Basic Research Program at the National Research University Higher School of Economics (HSE).
Citation
Jardón, C.F., Molodchik, M. and Paklina, S. (2018), "Strategic behaviour of Russian companies with regard to intangibles", Management Decision, Vol. 56 No. 11, pp. 2373-2390. https://doi.org/10.1108/MD-04-2017-0399
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
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